Muckraking is certainly alive and well in the work of Amanda Griscom whose columns of that name in Grist unfailingly flush from the underbrush good stories that nobody else is covering. The story of the BLM's drive for oil and gas drilling on New Mexico's pristine 1.2-million-acre Otero Mesa is another one. It has gotten little national coverage, although it has been covered within the state. The Campaign to Protect America's Lands has called the BLM's plan to drill the mesa a reward for major Bush campaign donor George Yates, whose company has the most leases there. But Griscom also notes that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), who has made a major effort to stop drilling of what he calls "the West's ANWR," has been mentioned as a potential Dem VP pick for 2004 (see http://www.gristmagazine.com/muck/muck031104.asp?source=galert).